Borrow vs Lend
Level A2 · Verb Patterns
borrow and lend both describe temporarily giving or receiving something, but they look at the same transaction from opposite sides. borrow means to take and use something that belongs to someone else, with the intention of giving it back — the borrower receives. lend means to give something of yours to someone else temporarily, expecting it back — the lender gives. Can I borrow your pen? (I want to take and use your pen) is the mirror image of Can you lend me your pen? (I want you to give me your pen) — both describe the same event, from different perspectives.
How to use each verb:
- borrow + object (+ from + person) = to take something temporarily, from someone else: I borrowed a book from the library. Can I borrow your charger? She borrowed some money from her brother.
- lend + person + object (or lend + object + to + person) = to give something temporarily to someone: Can you lend me your charger? / Can you lend your charger to me? He lent his sister some money.
- The direction of the object always matches the verb: borrow always takes something IN toward the subject (borrower receives); lend always sends something OUT from the subject (lender gives). If you can replace the verb with take (from), it's borrow; if you can replace it with give (to), it's lend.
- In American English, loan is sometimes used informally as a verb meaning the same as lend: Can you loan me twenty dollars? (informal, especially in the US). In British English, lend is strongly preferred and loan as a verb is rarer.
The most common mistake is using borrow when you mean lend, or vice versa, because both describe the same transaction — Can you borrow me your pen? is wrong; if you want the other person to give you something, use lend: Can you lend me your pen?; borrow can never take a person as its direct object in this way. A second mistake is forgetting from with borrow when naming the source — I borrowed the car my brother is missing from: I borrowed the car from my brother.
Ask who ends up with the item and who originally had it: if the subject of the sentence is receiving something that belongs to someone else, use borrow (+ from). If the subject is the one giving something away temporarily, use lend (+ to, or with an indirect object). Substituting take/receive for borrow and give for lend can help confirm which verb fits.